חַיֵּי שָׂרָה
Chayei Sarah / Life of Sarah
Genesis 23:1-25:18
1 Kings 1:1-31
1 Corinthians 15:50-57

Passion…

 Passion…

    This Torah portion is titled ‘The Life of Sarah’. However, it begins in the past tense, immediately recording her death. Genesis 23:1-2 ‘Sarah lived one hundred and twenty-seven years; these were the years of the life of Sarah. So Sarah died in Kirjath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.’
    What was the life of Sarah? Despite God’s repeated promise of many children, she was infertile, unable to have a single child, until her old age. So old that she laughed in the face of the promise. Before Isaac was born, she persuaded Abraham to take her handmaid, Hagar, and have a child by her - Ishmael. This only brought on great grief, jealousy and strife. She pretended to be Abraham’s sister in the face of abduction by Pharoah. Her only son was to be offered to God, causing great strife of the spirit. Yet, Sarah was passionate while she remained steadfast serving the God that called them away to a foreign place. She passed away at the age of 127 years after the Akeidah (the Binding of Isaac).  
     Abraham is passionate when he bargains for the cave of Machpelah. Genesis 23:12-13 ‘Then Abraham bowed himself down before the people of the land; 13 and he spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, saying, “If you will give it, please hear me. I will give you money for the field; take it from me and I will bury my dead there.’ He showed passion for his right to own the cave. 
        In chapter 24 Abraham sends his servant to find a bride for Isaac. After the conventional circumcision promise of placing one’s hand under the other’s thigh, Eleazar departs to find the bride. In Genesis 24:13-14 the servant requests of God that the young maiden to be Isaac’s wife show extraordinary strength and passion.  In Genesis 24:12, the servant also shows great passion for his master Abraham, ‘Then he said, “O Lord God of my master Abraham, please give me success this day, and show kindness to my master Abraham. ‘
      In Genesis 24:18-20 we see great passion as Rebekka works to water the camels. ‘So she said, “Drink, my lord.” Then she quickly let her pitcher down to her hand, and gave him a drink. 19 And when she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I will draw water for your camels also, until they have finished drinking.” 20 Then she quickly emptied her pitcher into the trough, ran back to the well to draw water, and drew for all his camels.”
     Chayei Sarah closes with the death of Abraham.
     What is it to have passion for Adonai?  Acts 17 describes several types of passion.  
     In Acts 17:1-4 Paul’s passion was to return to the synagogue to preach the Good News of Messiah, and a great multitude of people had the passion to join Paul and Silas:  ‘Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Messiah had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Yeshua whom I preach to you is the Messiah.” And some of them were persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas.’      
    In Acts 17:5 some of the Jews that were not persuaded had a passion to create chaos and hate, ‘But the Jews who were not persuaded, envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.’
    In the rest of Acts 17, we see Paul continuing to preach the Good News and the unrelenting, jealous sect of the Pharisees continuing in their quest to silence Paul. Two types of passion. 
   James 2:23 and Romans 4:3 shows the passion that Abraham had. 
   James 2:23 ‘And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.’
    Romans 4:3 ‘For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”
     Passion is a Greek word and in the Brit Chadasha often translates as ‘to suffer’ as in Matthew 16:21, 17:12, 27:19, and Acts 1:3.
     Passion in the Hebrew text is ‘to cleave’. Cleave is a powerful word which turns up in various places and in various ways throughout Scripture. A man cleaves to his woman in marriage, Genesis 2:24. The tongue cleaves to the roof of the mouth, Ezekiel 3:26. Tired bones cleave to the skin, Psalm 102:5. Deuteronomy is abundant with Scripture that say to ‘cleave to God.’ 
     To cleave is an action, and it implies a sticking to it and sticking with it that is key to passion.  One can cleave to good or evil. To cleave to anything is to adhere to the substance. When we cleave to God, we adhere to Him and His ways.  

Chayei Sara / The Life of Sarah
Genesis 23:1-25:18
HafTorah 1 Kings 1:1-31
Brit Chadasha 1 Corinthians 15:50-57

  

     The Life of Sarah as a title seems a little bit odd for this parsha since it begins with the recording of her death at the age of 127 years. After Abraham grieves for Sarah, he approaches the sons of Heth in nearby Hebron to negotiate the purchase of a field and a cave in Machpelah, where he wishes to bury her. This transaction represents the entire first chapter of this parsha. Why is this so important?
     When the Israelites came out of Egypt and entered Eretz Canaan and came to the territory of the Hittites – the “sons of Heth” - there was a legitimate claim to that land. Not only had God promised it to Abraham forever, but it had been legally purchased at an agreed-upon price in the presence of many witnesses by Abraham, thus belonging to his descendants. This also firmly establishes the rightful Jewish claim to that city, then and now, despite the turmoil that has surrounded Hebron over the last century, and despite the argument of other world leaders that it belongs to another group of people. Hebron, approximately nineteen miles south of Jerusalem, is now a Palestinian city.       
      Hebron was formerly known as Kiryat Arba “City of the Four” and is the second oldest inhabited city on earth. Excavations there revealed settlements dating to back 3,400 BC. The name Hebron is from the Hebrew word chaver from the root ḥbr, meaning to ‘unite, alliance, friend or companion’. Could this be because Abraham was called “the friend of God”- 2 Chronicles 20:7 and James 2:23. Sarah, Abraham, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, Leah, Ruth, and Jesse are buried there. David was also anointed there, and Hebron is considered the second holiest site of Israel.
    But possibly, the main part of this parsha is chapter 24, ‘A Bride for Isaac’. Abraham sends Eliezer, but first makes him swear the most solemn of oaths; ‘So Abraham said to the oldest servant of his house, who ruled over all that he had, “Please, put your hand under my thigh, and I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell; but you shall go to my country and to my family, and take a wife for my son Isaac.” Genesis 24:2-4. 
    
Both the Canaanites and the Chaldeans worshiped false deities and Isaac was not to be re-introduced into any pagan society. Eliezer questions Abraham, wondering if the woman would even be willing to follow him back? He asks Abraham if he should seek a wife ‘back to the land which he came from’.  Abraham answers: Genesis 24:6-9But Abraham said to him, “Beware that you do not take my son back there. The Lord God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my family, and who spoke to me and swore to me, saying, ‘To your descendants I give this land,’ He will send His angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there. And if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be released from this oath; only do not take my son back there.” So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and swore to him concerning this matter.’
    
Eliezer comes to the city of Nahor and upon reaching a well, ‘makes the ten camels kneel by the well’ at the time of the drawing of water. He prays to God with the title of ‘Adonai of my master Abraham’ and asks for a sign, success and kindness towards Abraham in finding a wife for his son, Isaac. Genesis 24:10-14.
     Chayei Sarah ends with a brief statement regarding the marriage of Abraham to Keturah (which some say was Hagar), his death, burial and the families of Ishmael and Isaac.
     In Genesis 24:57-58 after Eleazer’s encounter with Rebekah at the well, she brought him to her father’s house where they discussed the proposed marriage between them. The following morning they called her and said, “Will you go with this man?” She said, “I will go.” Rebekah gave her consent – her “I do.” The Hebrew name for willing consent is daat. The same occurs to us in our spiritual walk with Yeshua. We are never forced to say ‘I do’ to Yeshua/ the Living Word, for God created us all with a free choice and a free will.
    There are two verses in the Brit Chadasha which should give clarity to our behavior: 2 Corinthians 11:2 states ‘For I am jealous for you with godly jealously. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to the Messiah.” Betrothed can mean engaged, united, and given to. Rabbi Shau’l continues in Romans 7:4: “Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Messiah, that you may be married to another – to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.” 
     Having given a get, we are redeemed to marry; God is allowing us that privilege if we give our willing consent, our daat, consenting to His ways and Covenant.  Our redemption is given to us by God. The Word became flesh and redeems us as we see in John 1:1-5 ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.’ And John 1:14 ‘And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.’
      Redemption is through the Living Word, the Living Torah:
     Isaiah 47:4 ‘Our Redeemer, the Lord of hosts is His name, The Holy One of Israel.’
     Psalm 19:14 ‘Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.’
     1 Chronicles 17:21 ‘And what one nation in the earth is like Your people Israel, whom God went to redeem for Himself as a people, to make You a name by great and terrible things, in driving out nations from before Your people, whom You redeemed out of Egypt?’
     Nehemiah 1:10 ‘They are Your servants and Your people whom You redeemed by Your great power and by Your strong hand.’
     Psalm 78:35 ‘And they remembered that God was their rock, and the Most High God their Redeemer.’
     Psalm 103:4 ‘Who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion…’
     Colossians 1:13-14 ‘For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.’
     Luke 1:68 ‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people…’
     Romans 3:23-24 ‘for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Yeshua HaMashiach…’
     Would we be free to be betrothed to the King if we negate the Living Word? Would we be pure as spoken by Rabbi Shau’l in 2Corinthians 11:2? If we disallow the Torah, and cling to pagan ways, which are ways other than God’s and were the ways that Abraham was so against for his son’s bride – do we fit the qualifications of the redeemed bride?